![]() “What’s taking so long?” someone else urged. Ned stopped breathing altogether, transfixed on eyes that were black and shiny like the skin of a snake. ![]() He stepped on a crate to reach for them and stalled, his gaze pinned to Ned’s through the gap in the wooden planks that made up the cupboard. The boy couldn’t have been older than Ned, with black, tousled hair and a dirty face that was barely visible in the shadows even when he got closer, searching for cans stacked above the cupboard doors. “Get the canned fruit, Cole!” a man yelled from the main room. ![]() But the person who stepped inside was only a boy. Ned flinched, terrified of the monster with six fingers on each hand. Laughter and conversation was muted by wooden walls but assaulted Ned as soon as the pantry door opened again. She disappeared for what could have been minutes, but might as well have been hours. Too terrified to speak, he nodded, hoping she’d see him through the gaps between the planks that made up the doors of the cupboard at the back of the pantry. ![]() Promise me, Ned,” Mother whispered, wiping tears from her eyes with fingers trembling as if she were out in the cold. “Stay here, and don’t make a peep no matter what happens. ![]() Ned now knew exactly where he’d seen those black eyes before. Uncle Liam had assured him they’d never hear of those bastards again, but the name alone triggered an avalanche of memories he’d tried to wipe from his mind. ![]()
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